Greek food has an image problem abroad, which is that it consists of moussaka and a salad. Inside Greece it is a much wider thing — a cuisine built on vegetables, pulses, wild greens, small fish and long-cooked meat, in which the grilled meat everyone associates with it is only one register.
These are the dishes worth ordering, roughly grouped by what they do at the table. Order across the groups and you have a proper Greek meal.
What are the cooked vegetable dishes, and why do they come first?
Ladera — literally oiled — are vegetables cooked slowly in olive oil and tomato and eaten warm or at room temperature. They are the backbone of everyday Greek cooking and are usually the cheapest and best things on the menu.
Gigantes are butter beans baked in tomato. Briam is oven-roasted courgette, potato and tomato. Fasolakia are green beans stewed soft. Gemista are tomatoes and peppers stuffed with rice and herbs. Horta is boiled wild greens, dressed with lemon and oil, and is the single most Greek thing you can order.
- Gigantes: baked butter beans in tomato.
- Briam: slow-roasted summer vegetables.
- Gemista: stuffed tomatoes and peppers.
- Horta: boiled wild greens with lemon.
- Fava: yellow split pea puree, served with raw onion and capers.
Which dips and small fried things should you order?
Tzatziki is yoghurt, cucumber and enough garlic to be noticeable. Melitzanosalata is smoked aubergine. Taramosalata is cured roe, and the good version is beige rather than pink. Skordalia is garlic and potato or bread, and it exists to be eaten with fried things.
The fried things are kolokythakia — courgette in a light batter — aubergine, and gavros, small anchovies eaten whole. Together with a plate of feta and some bread, this is a complete meal for two people and costs almost nothing.
What do you order from the grill?
Souvlaki is the skewer; gyros is shaved from the spit; kontosouvli is a large spit-roast of pork. Paidakia are lamb chops, ordered by weight and eaten with your hands, and they are one of the great Greek pleasures.
Bifteki is a flattened, herb-heavy burger. Loukaniko is the regional sausage, which changes completely between Pelion, Crete and the north. Grilled octopus, charred and dressed with vinegar, sits between the grill and the sea and belongs on every table.
What are the long-cooked dishes?
Moussaka deserves its fame when it is made properly: aubergine, minced meat and a bechamel that has been baked rather than poured. Pastitsio is its pasta cousin. Both are lunch food, cooked in the morning and best before the evening.
Kleftiko is lamb slow-baked in paper or a sealed pot. Stifado is beef stewed with small onions, cinnamon and vinegar. Youvetsi is meat baked with orzo. These are the dishes to order when the weather turns and the tavernas move indoors.
Read nextA guide to traditional Greek dishes and where they come from
How do you order fish without overpaying?
Fresh fish in Greece is sold by weight and is genuinely expensive; frozen fish must be marked as such on the menu, and it very often is. The trick is not to avoid fish but to order the cheap ones, which are also the best.
Gavros, sardeles, marides and koutsomoura are small, oily, fried or grilled whole, and cost a fraction of sea bream. A plate of them with a lemon and a glass of tsipouro is one of the finest cheap meals in the country. Save the sea bass for the day someone else is paying.
Read nextHow much does food cost in Greece? A practical price guide
How do you build a table out of all this?
For four people: two ladera, two dips with bread, one fried plate, a horiatiki salad, and one grill or one plate of small fish to share. That is nine dishes, everyone eats more than enough, and in a neighbourhood taverna it lands around fifteen to twenty euros a head with wine.
The same order at an early sitting through a discount platform costs closer to ten. Filotimo halves the food bill at partner restaurants during their off-peak hours, which is exactly the kind of long, shared, dish-heavy meal it rewards most.
| Course | Order | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Cooked vegetables | Gigantes, briam or horta | €5–8 each |
| Dips | Tzatziki and fava | €4–6 each |
| Fried | Courgette balls, or small fish | €6–9 |
| From the grill | One shared plate of chops or chicken | €12–16 |
| Salad | Horiatiki, in season | €6–8 |
Greek cooking is at its best in the cheap dishes: beans, greens, small fish and vegetables cooked in oil until they give up. Order those first and the grill second, and you will eat the way the country actually eats.
How this guide is kept honest
Written in Athens by the team behind Filotimo, from the menus, prices and bookings we see across our partner restaurants. Prices move with the season and the street, so every figure here is a working range rather than a quote.